In the early 1980s, the Cortez is starting its victory lap in pop culture. Right after the episode, sales went nothing but uphill – fast! In the episode “Consenting Adults,” the Hollywood star races downhill chase scene on a skateboard in the Nike Cortez Seniorita. 1976: Nike Senorita Cortezĭid we mention there was a women’s version of the Cortez, labeled the Senorita Cortez? That shoe hit the big time when it was worn by actress Farah Fawcett in the hit TV show Charlie’s Angels. Introduced as “the world’s lightest running shoe,” the Nike Nylon Cortez proves popular in classic white and also with blue colorways. Bowerman gets back to tinkering…ĭetermined to develop the lightest running shoe of all time, Bowerman switches the leather upper for a lightweight nylon construction. The shoe has the look and performance baked in, but it’s a bit heavy. Having secured their first pro athlete endorsement with Steve Prefontaine, Nike also introduces the Swoosh to its footwear designs.ĭesigned by student Carolyn Davidson, the Swoosh adorned the leather version of the Cortez, which retailed for $22.90 at the time. This led Onitsuka to rebrand the shoe with a re-worked design as the “Tiger Corsair,” which is still a popular shoe, by the way.Īt the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) tradeshow in Chicago, Nike introduces three models: The Marathon, Obori (later known as “Boston”) and the Cortez. They decided to introduce their own line of shoes, featuring the “Nike Cortez”, which started a year-long battle with Onitsuka Tiger over who gets the rights to the “Cortez” name.īoth companies continued to sell shoes with similar designs under the Cortez name, until a court ruled in Nike’s favor in 1974. – inspired by the Greek goddess of victory – on May 30, 1971. Tiger Cortezīowerman and Knight changed the name of their company to Nike Inc. It was the #1 best-selling shoe in the history of BRS and Onitsuka Tiger, but behind the scenes, trouble started brewing. In search of a new name, BRS zeroed in on “Cortez” – allegedly chosen after the conquistador Hernán Cortés who defeated the Aztecs (take that, adidas!) – and the TG-24 “Cortez” became an instant bestseller.īeyond “serious” athletes, the Cortez struck a note with the trending casual running – or “jogging” – movement and also looked cool enough to be worn as a lifestyle shoe. So it was back to the drawing board for Bowerman. Calling the shoe “Aztec” – based on ancient Mexican history and the Aztec empire – was an okay fix for a while, but drew some legal attention when on February 13, 1968, a letter from Herzogenaurach arrived: Apparently, using the Aztec moniker on a running shoe proved too close to the adidas “Azteca Gold” track shoe with spikes. But even that name only ran a few laps, as a major change was right around the corner.Īs the actual year of the Olympic rolled around, the team at BRS and Onitsuka Tiger wanted a flashier name. This change was inspired, of course, by the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico, which was a huge motivator for Bowerman and his running team. In 1967, Bowerman changed the shoe’s name to the more market-friendly title “Mexico”. Opened in 1964, BRS was importing performance-ready shoes from Japan to the US and found a hot market in running culture. In those days before Nike was even founded, Bowerman and his partner Phil Knight operated their Oregon-based company under the name Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). Despite the unwieldy name, it checked all the boxes of what athletes were looking for and became one of the best-selling runners of the year. The rest is history: In August 1966, Bowerman ordered 300 pairs of his creation, the “TG-24/Shoe designed by Bill Bowerman w/Mexico Line” for distribution in the United States. And working together with Japanese footwear company Onitsuka Tiger, he developed a hungry running shoe that could eat up the pavement with its aerodynamic upper and continuous foam midsole supplemented by a herringbone-patterned outsole. “A tiger hunts best when he’s hungry,” said Bill Bowerman, the American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike. Before the Cortez saw the light of day, there was a previous chapter in the mid-1960s.
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